The spirit in evolution and in nature

Philip Clayton

pp. 187-196

in: Amos Yong, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Kirsteen Kim (eds), Interdisciplinary and religio-cultural discourses on a spirit-filled world, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

Suppose for a moment that, as theists believe, an eternal divine Spirit really did create this cosmos. Suppose that it was God's intent to produce beings capable of knowing God and working in harmony with the Spirit. Suppose, further, that it was also God's intent that they should do so not as machines but as imago Dei—creatures made in the image of God, agents who are freely responding to the divine lure. Some readers will believe that these three assumptions are actually true; others will hold that they are false. I will not try to offer proofs for or against these views, which philosophers refer to collectively as personalist theism. Instead, we shall concentrate on the implications of holding this set of beliefs.